New rules approved by the European Parliament's Legal Affairs and Women's Rights committees will grant greater protection to victims of gender violence, stalking, harassment or abduction.

Under the new rules, victims who are granted protection in one EU Member State could get fully equivalent protection if they move to another. The draft legislation would add civil law protection to the criminal law rules already enforced under the European Protection Order (EPO) Directive.

Under the new rules, any victim of gender violence, abduction or aggression, who has been granted protection in one EU Member State, would just need to fill in a standard and multilingual certificate to have his or her right to protection fully enforced throughout the EU.

MEPs amended the proposal to ensure that EPO rules cover all cases of danger to people's physical and moral integrity, including threats to dignity, security and personal freedom.

They also proposed that it should be possible to request the multilingual certificate online and that the cost of the recognition procedure should be waived for victims.

A Facebook advertising campaign run by Shelter Scotland aimed at victims or potential victims of domestic abuse resulted in a huge surge in visits to its web site from women looking for help and advice.

Visits to the site’s domestic abuse information page saw a 600% rise compared with previous weekends when the same adverts had been running.

There was also a dramatic increase in visits to the ‘Leaving Home in a Hurry’ section which went up from zero the previous week to 290 and the ‘Legal Action on Partners’ page visits increased by 100%.

The Facebook ad campaign was launched to coincide with the weekend’s Old Firm football match which Strathclyde Police says is often the catalyst for a spike in reported incidents of domestic abuse.

On 1st February, the House of Commons voted to overturn the Lords amendment to the Welfare Reform Bill which was intended to prevent single parents being charged for child maintenance services, where they have no alternative but to use the statutory system to get financial support from the other parent for their child.

This is despite the fact that this amendment was overwhelmingly supported by the House of Lords, with 270 votes in favour of the amendment and just 128 against.

During the debate DWP Minister Maria Miller announced that the government would set the upfront application fee - payable by parents with care to access the Child Support Agency - at £20 for all applicants.

Gingerbread’s Chief Executive Fiona Weir commented:

"It is a small comfort to single parents that the application fee will be set at the lower amount of £20 - but the fact that single parents will still lose up to 12% of all payments collected by the CSA and intended for their children will be a bitter pill to swallow".

A recent study by researchers at Cornell University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison has found that cohabitation can be equally as beneficial to a couple's well-being as marriage.

The study looked at the effects marriage or cohabitation had on a couple's health and well-being, and also at how long these effects continued to last.

According to co-author, Kelly Musick, the study found that "differences between marriage and cohabitation tend to be small and dissipate after a honeymoon period. Also, while married couples experienced health gains -- likely linked to the formal benefits of marriage such as shared health care plans -- cohabiting couples experienced greater gains in happiness and self-esteem. For some, cohabitation may come with fewer unwanted obligations than marriage and allow for more flexibility, autonomy and personal growth.”

Musick went on to say that: "Marriage has long been an important social institution, but in recent decades western societies have experienced increases in cohabitation, before or instead of marriage, and increases in children born outside of marriage. These changes have blurred the boundaries of marriage, leading to questions about what difference marriage makes in comparison to alternatives."